Transfer Charges Could Erode Value of Cash Remittance – What mPayment Must Provide

We are very curious here, will government be allowing Nigerian mpayment companies to be making international cash remittances? We mean if paga, mpesa, and others could be allowed to play in the league of Western Union and MoneyGram.

We know that a big chunk of money could be lost via transaction cost. Western Union makes a great deal of this in two ways – the fees and then the foreign currency exchange float which always favor them. In some cases, you lose 10-20% just for sending cash to your family and business.

How will Nigerian government help customers in this area? Any insight will be appreciated. We have tried to understand the fees structure of these mpayment companies with no luck.

We are proposing for government to allow these companies to compete with Western Union so that fees will go down. If someone in Germany can wire money to someone in Nigeria via cellphone, that means the world has gotten one big fee sucking Western Union cut-out. And we will want the central bank to build alliances to enable interoperability at the global scale.

Paypal should be brought into the game so that someone in London can send money to another person in Enugu just through Paypal and mpayment linked. Your email and phone connected! The one of 100 Time Persons of the Year CBN governor has the reputation to get all these acts done, now.

By having these more avenues, we will eliminate the risk of informal money transaction which could be cheap but very risky. And reduce the fees wasted via Western Union.